Detection and repair of corrosion is an important issue in the world of aviation. When an aircraft undergoes conventional corrosion inspection and repair procedures, the aircraft may spend up to several months in a depot facility awaiting completion of the inspection, disassembly, repair, replacement, and re-assembly procedures. Typically, a significant portion of this downtime may be attributable to the unavailability of replacement parts or spares. Replacement parts are often ordered from a supplier only when the need becomes known. Because conventional field-level inspections of aircraft are usually limited to visual inspections, the actual extent of corrosion in an aircraft structure may not be determined until more extensive, depot-level inspections are performed. As a result, the need for replacement parts may not be identified when the aircraft is in the field, but rather, may only become known when the aircraft reaches the depot and is disassembled. Therefore, there exists an unmet need for apparatus and methods for conducting field-level inspections of aircraft to provide an early assessment of the extent of corrosion in an aircraft structure and to facilitate the ordering of replacement parts prior to the aircraft's arrival at the depot.